Damage

Damage is the attack value dealt by a weapon. The health points (HP) of a player or object must be attacked down to 0 for them to be splatted or destroyed. Players have 100 HP. The Rainmaker shield has 1000 HP. Splash Walls have 600 HP, and naturally lose 85.71 HP per second.

Visual feedback

When the player accumulates more than 30 damage, an ink effect will appear on the border of the TV screen.

In Splatoon, when the player get splatted, an ink effect will appear on the border of the Gamepad screen.

When an enemy player accumulates more than 30 damage, that player's location will be visible to the team on the map screen.

An Inkling gets stuck in enemy ink.

Enemy player's location is shown up on the map after getting hurt.

Healing damage

After taking damage, there is a one second delay before healing will begin. Touching even a small drop of enemy ink on the ground can reset this delay. In kid form, Inklings heal at a rate of 12.5 damage per second. While submerged in ink, Inklings heal at a rate of 100 damage per second.

Types of damage

Falloff damage

If a player is fighting outside of the effective range of their weapon, falloff damage will occur.[1] This means the damage dealt will be less, often making it necessary to hit an opponent extra times to splat them. This happens because ink is less lethal when it loses velocity, which happens if a player is fighting outside of the effective range of their weapon. When a player is fighting at effective range, a crosshair will appear when they point their aiming reticle at someone.

The Slosher and Tri-Slosher are least likely to experience difficulties related to falloff damage because their damage starts very high. Blasters, Chargers, and the Sloshing Machine are not affected by falloff damage at all. Falloff damage can be mitigated by using Damage Up abilities.

Passive ink damage

Stepping in enemy ink will accumulate up to 50 damage at a rate of 30 damage per second. The Ink Resistance Up ability reduces this to 30 accumulated damage at a rate of 12 damage per second.

Splash damage

Splash damage is damage that is dealt within the effective range of a weapon, but still with reduced damage as a penalty for not aiming well. It is dealt by the blast from a Blaster type weapon when the player does not land a direct hit, and by Roller type weapons when the target is hit by the far left or far right splashes of paint.

Damage in Splatoon

Some damage mechanics were removed in Splatoon 2. These Splatoon-specific mechanics are documented here.

Damage Up vs. Defense Up

The Damage Up and Defense Up abilities interact by canceling the effects of the other. If a weapon starts at dealing 52 damage per shot, it will still do 52 damage if the attacker is wearing 1 Main of Damage Up and the defender is wearing 1 Main of Defense Up. But if the attacker is wearing no Damage Up and the defender is wearing 3 Subs of Defense Up, the damage will be reduced to 49.6, forcing the attacker to land one extra shot in order to splat the defender. This leads to players stacking more and more of these abilities to counter each other.

Hits-to-splat tables

These images show the hits-to-splat for all possible match-ups of Damage Up and Defense Up, for weapons that deal consistent damage. Weapons that deal consistent damage but never have their hits-to-splat changed are: Aerospray, H-3 Nozzlenose, Jet Squelcher, Slosher, Sloshing Machine, Splattershot Pro, and Tri-Slosher.

Blasters, Chargers, and Rollers deal variable damage, so they are affected differently. The edge of a Blaster blast may become too weak to splat in two hits, and the edge of a Rapid Blaster blast may become too weak to splat in four hits, requiring the Blaster player to either use Damage Up or aim their weapon more accurately. Chargers may require an extra hit-to-splat if the player did not fully charge their shot. Rollers will have their effective range slightly reduced by Defense Up, which sometimes results in a different number of hits-to-splat.

Benefits of reaching damage cap

The number of hits required to splat an opponent is determined by the base damage of a weapon. Weapons that need more than 1 hit to splat have a damage limit regardless of how much damage is stacked, as follows:

2-hit weapons have a damage limit of 99.9.

3-hit weapons have a damage limit of 49.9.

4-hit weapons have a damage limit of 33.3.

5-hit weapons have a damage limit of 24.9.

If a player stacks enough Damage Up to approach these limits, then the player will have the potential to need one less hit-to-splat if the enemy steps on the player's ink color. Stepping on player's ink will make the enemy player get stuck and get damage taken overtime. Normally, touching enemy ink will accumulate up to 50 damage at a rate of 30 damage per second. But with Ink Resistance Up, only 30 damage can accumulate, and at a rate of 12 damage per second. The closer the player is to reaching a damage limit, the higher the chances to get one less hit-to-splat.

For example, the base damage of a fully charged Bamboozler shot does 80 damage. If the player stacks 2 Mains & 5 Subs of Damage Up to reach the 99.9 damage limit, and if the enemy walks on the player's ink for a split second, there is the potential to splat them in one fully charged Bamboozler shot instead of two shots.

Examples of the other damage limits: Splattershot Pro has the potential to splat in two shots instead of three if the player stacks enough damage up to do 49.9 damage per shot and the enemy walks on the player's ink. Jet Squelcher has the potential to splat in three shots instead of four if the player stacks enough damage up to do 33.3 damage per shot and the enemy walks on the player's ink.

For damage limits on other weapons, see the chart below.

Damage Up increases the damage per hit of 2-hit+ splat weapons to limits of 24.9, 33.3, 49.9, or 99.9.